Fwd: Re: [H-GEN] Print services to Windows from Unix

[Anthony Irwin]

andrew laidlaw wrote:

>     Sorry to go (a little bit) off topic here, but I'm in the process
>     of understanding what goes on in unix printing and had formed the
>     impression that CUPS was the default?
>
>     If that isn't the case, then what is the most common unix printing
>     system?
>
I would say that cups is going to be your best bet and would probably be 
the easiest for you to set up. Cups even has a web admin interface for 
you to select the printer you want to use (from memory if your using the 
computer as a workstation you can just use http://localhost:631/ ).

Also make sure you have the foomatic-db in fact anything to do with 
foomatic as it is the drivers for the printers. You will need to restart 
cups after installing them to see the as options to choose from.

>     As a related question, I wonder if there are any recommendations
>     one might follow in selecting printers to purchase for linux,
>     ideally multi-function scanner/printer packages?  Is postscript a
>     must?  There are, on the net, long lists of printers that are held
>     to be routinely useable under linux, but with all the OS flavours
>     and printing options available, how should one check in advance if
>     a given printer will work with a given linux release without
>     further ado?
>
For scanners unless things have changed avoid cannon. I have an old 
cannon scanner which uses a different technology to a standard scanners 
and cannon isn't real helpful with people wanting to create their own 
drivers on it. My scanner does have some third party program that I can 
compile and use for getting it to work but it ain't worth the effort if 
your getting something new get a sane compatible scanner.

I don't really use scanners or printers that much so I can't really give 
much suggestions although I did a quick search on things and the 
following links may help you.

http://www.linuxprinting.org/suggested.html
http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/index.html

Anyway hope that helps

Kind Regards,
Anthony Irwin